Travel alert! Heavy rains lash parts of Uttarakhand, causing landslides and blocked highways

Several parts of Uttarakhand have been witnessing heavy downpour since Wednesday, resulting in disruption of normal life and landslides in several places. Water levels of the rivers have increased by manifolds, and there is still a possibility of heavy rainfall to continue in the coming days.

As per the Indian Meteorological Department, the state will very likely receive heavy rainfall at isolated places in the coming two to three days. Apart from the IMP, various other agencies have issued alerts for flash floods, and torrential rains in the next few days.
On Wednesday, the State Disaster Management Centre was warned about the same, whereas all District Magistrates have been advised to keep precautionary measures handy to avoid any unfortunate incidents.

Meanwhile, the Gangotri National Highway has been temporarily closed due to heavy and incessant downpour in the state, along with landslides. Thus, the national highway leading to Badrinath and Kedarnath shrines remained blocked at several points due to falling of boulders, as rain lashed Rishikesh in Uttarakhand's Dehradun district early on Wednesday.Also, in Chamoli, Badrinath highway has been closed as debris kept falling from the mountains, which created hassles for locals to reach their destination.

Reportedly, Pindar, Alakananda, Mandakini rivers are flowing only some centimetres below the danger mark, due to heavy rainfall in the district.

IMD has further predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall likely to occur at a few places, and with extremely heavy downfall in isolated places including Bageshwar, Pithoragarh, Nainital, Chamoli, Udham Singh Nagar, Tehri, Pauri, Haridwar, Dehradun districts of Uttarakhand in the next two days. The weather men also predicted that lightning will also likely occur at isolated places in Uttarakhand.